An emergency meeting has been called by the UK government after fears the Ebola virus may have spread here.

An unnamed man was tested at for the a hospital deadly disease in Birmingham after arriving back in the UK from Nigeria via Paris.

Fortunately the man was given the all-clear after tests but the scare has sharpened focus on the possible spread of the virus to Britain.

The Government emergencies committee is to meet to discuss how to tackle the “new and emerging” threat of Ebola, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said.

Mr Hammond said no British national so far had been affected by the outbreak and there had been no cases in the UK but he would be chairing the Government’s Cobra emergencies committee to assess the situation.

“As far as we are aware, there are no British nationals so far affected by this outbreak and certainly no cases in the UK.

“However the Prime Minister does regard it as a very serious threat and I will be chairing a Cobra meeting later today to assess the situation and look at any measures that we need to take either in the UK, or in our diplomatic posts abroad in order to manage the threat,” he told Sky News.

“We are very much focused on it as a new and emerging threat which we need to deal with.”

A desperate race is underway to find dozens of passengers who flew on the same jets as the 40 year old.

Mr Sawyer was allowed to board an ASKY Airlines flight in Liberia, where Ebola is rife, despite vomiting and suffering from ­diarrhoea. His sister was recently killed by the virus.

He had a stopover in Ghana then changed planes in Togo and flew to the international travel hub of Lagos in Nigeria. The dad-of-three died five days after arriving in the city.

Lancaster University virologist Derek ­Gatherer said passengers, crew and airport ground staff who came into contact with Mr Sawyer could be in “pretty serious danger”. Ebola is fatal in 90% of cases.

Doctors have identified 59 people who were near him and have tested 20. But they are struggling to find the others, who could have flown to anywhere in the world from Lagos.

There were today questions over how Liberian government worker Mr Sawyer was let on flights while clearly showing symptoms of Ebola – which has killed 672 people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone since it broke out in February.

British doctors and border officials have been warned to be on the lookout for people in the UK showing signs of the disease.